Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) style was tonal and often evocative of the English countryside through the use of folk themes.

Short Biography:

Among his works are the orchestral Fantasia on a Theme By Thomas Tallis (1910); the opera Sir John in Love (1929), featuring the Elizabethan song "Greensleves"; and nine symphonies (1909-1957).

He studied at Cambridge, the Royal College of Music, and with Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Ravel in Paris.

His choral poems include Toward the Unknown Region (Whitman) in 1907 and On Wenlock Edge (Housman) in 1909, A Sea Symphony (1910), and A London Symphony (1914).

Later works include Sinfonia Antartica in 1953, developed from his film score for Scott of the Antarctic 1948, and a Ninth Symphony in 1958. He also wrote A Pastoral Symphony (1922), sacred music for unaccompanied choir, the ballad opera Hugh the Drover (1924), and the operatic morality play The Pilgrim's Progress (1951).

Why is Ralph Vaughan Williams famous?

Ralph Vaughan Williams was a famous English composer, born in Gloucestershire.

Ralph Vaughan Williams Lists

	1872 births
	1958 deaths
	20th-century classical composers
	Academics of Birkbeck, University of London
	Alumni of the Royal College of Music
	Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
	Ballet composers
	British Army personnel of World War I
	Burials at Westminster Abbey
	Deaf musicians
	Decca Records artists
	English agnostics
	English composers
	English folk-song collectors
	English humanists
	English people of Welsh descent
	English socialists
	Members of the Order of Merit
	Old Carthusians
	Opera composers
	People from Cotswold (district)
	People of the Edwardian era
	People of the Victorian era
	Royal Artillery officers
	Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists

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Ralph Vaughan Williams Pictures

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Tags: composer, choral poems, film score, opera, symphony

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Category: Musicians  - ( Musicians Archive)

Date Added: 04 July '12

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